Senator's Bill Would Expand Shuttle Program

In hopes of throwing a major kink into President Obama's plans to scratch the space shuttle fleet at the end of the year, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson introduces legislation to keep the shuttles flying until at least 2013.

The Obama administration's plans to mothball the space shuttle fleet at
the end of 2010 would be derailed by legislation introduced March 3 by
Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX). Under Hutchinson's bill, U.S. manned
spaceflight would continue until at least 2013.

Four more
shuttle missions are planned in 2010, with the last flight currently
targeted for launch in September. After that, under Obama's plan, the
fleet goes into retirement as NASA determines in what direction the
future of U.S. manned spaceflight is headed.

Hutchinson's Human
Space Flight Capability Assurance and Enhancement Act would allocate an
additional $3.4 billion between 2010 and 2012 to keep the space shuttle
flying. Obama's NASA budget calls for $989 million for the space shuttle
program and another $85 million in 2012, funds mostly dedicated to
retiring the fleet.

"We must close the gap in U.S. human space flight or face the reality that we will be totally dependent on Russia for access
to space until the next generation of space vehicle is developed,"
Hutchison said in a statement. "If the space shuttle program is
terminated, Russia and China will be the only nations in the world with
the capability to launch humans into space. This is unacceptable."

The
bill would require NASA to spread out the remaining shuttle flights and
could possibly add additional flights. It would also mandate that NASA
study options for a new rocket launcher that could deliver astronauts
to the the ISS (International Space Station) by the end of 2013 and
beyond low Earth orbit by 2019.